Wolfsong
by Starherd
Summary: Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj, growing up, as clones. History, sex, and violence. PreAdvent Children AU, since they're technically shinentai rather than clones. Beware the Yaoi.
1. Enjoy the Silence

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

This fic is about Loz, Yazoo, and Kadaj as clones, before Advent Children. History, sex, violence. All that good stuff.

Yes. I know. Shinentai. I actually prefer to write them that way most of the time. However, this fic started as back-story for them in an RPG I'm in, where we decided to play them as clones. So, there you have it. Consider it AU if it bothers you. It's just my take on it, after all.

This starts out written fast n' vague, since it was originally not supposed to get as long as it did. It gets more detailed the further it goes. So, um... sorry about the stylistic variability?

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

Don't worry, not springing rape on you readers unannounced or anything. This started out as _fluff_. (Why is it that my fluff ends up involving violence?)

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**Enjoy the Silence**

* * *

The world changed one day.

The scientists began by setting them on each other, but it didn't work. Once they saw each other, realized what they were fighting, they stopped, and stood together, and waited to be punished.

But they weren't. Instead, they were left together for a long time. There were no words at first. They stood and stared at the observation window, mirrored on this side with all beyond invisible to them. And then Loz became impatient and kicked at the artificial ground, and Yazoo looked toward the noise and made a small sound of amusement. And Loz smiled, and Yazoo smiled back, far more uncertain but smiling nonetheless.

So they sat and waited, silently staring. The artificial night fell, and they were still left alone.

They sat close to each other, inches between them, and waited.

Loz slept first, curled on his side while Yazoo sat with his chin on his knees. After a few hours, Loz awoke, and Yazoo slept.

The lights in the ceiling far above, hidden by transplanted foliage, gradually brightened to claim that it was day. Each of them was sure that something had happened, that they'd been abandoned, but neither spoke.

Finally, they looked at each other, and stood as one and began to look for a way out. And when a new monster to fight was released into the training room, they fought it together. It was something larger and stronger than either had fought before, and before they killed it, it tore at the skin of Loz's hand.

After the fight, Yazoo saw the wound. He reached out, cradled Loz's hand in both of his, and they stared at their hands together for a long time.

And then the door opened and they were allowed to leave. The techs waited outside and escorted them to one of the operating theaters. For the first time, there was equipment for two, instead of one. They were obedient, lay on the pair of cots as they were asked, allowed the needles and sensors as they'd been trained. But still they watched each other, tensing when the technicians stepped between and broke their gaze.

Eventually they were loosed again, permitted to eat. And then the lights said that it was night again. The techs came again and led them away, in separate directions, and they looked back at each other, uneasy.

Neither slept.

When they were brought together again the next day, they knew that they didn't want to be apart again. They fought well that day, tried to show that they were better together. That they should not be parted.

It didn't matter. When night came again, they were locked away in their separate rooms.

The next day, when they finished and the techs tried to part them again, Loz told them No.

He was punished, and they were separated.

Sometime in that night, Yazoo casually removed a wall panel next to the door of his room and spliced enough wires - cutting with fingernails alone - to break the electronic lock and open the door.

What frightened the scientists was that he moved as though he could have done it all along, and had simply never had reason.

He walked quickly to the door of Loz's room - they couldn't figure out how he knew where it was - and began to work on the lock there. Inside, Loz awoke, moved to the door, and laid his hand on it, three inches of metal all that stood between them.

When the techs and guards came for Yazoo, the door broke apart beneath Loz's fury as though it had no right to exist. As soon as they stood together, back to back, facing the guards, they stilled and waited.

They were placed in a strong, shield-bound holding cell for the rest of the night - but they were placed there together.

Sitting with their backs against the wall, Yazoo shifted close and leaned against Loz. Loz tilted his head to rest against Yazoo's, and they gave each other their names.

Those were the first words that they spoke aloud to each other.

They were allowed to remain together at nearly all times after that. Their new, more strongly reinforced room contained beds for both of them. For a few weeks they tried to sleep separately, but by the end of the night they were usually sitting together on the floor again, or one of them sat near the bed of the other until morning. Finally, they tore the beds apart, moved the narrow mattresses together and slept that way, inches apart again. Rarely speaking, Staring at each other with gleaming eyes until one or the other fell asleep first.

It became easier to bring down even the strongest monsters thrown at them. The pain of the tests and Mako treatments came to mean little, so long as they were together.

They began to forget what it was like to be apart. Neither wanted to remember.

They vaguely recognized that time passed, marked only by their bodies becoming taller and stronger. They were surprised when they began to diverge, Yazoo remaining slight while Loz became more broad-shouldered and solid. But it was nothing that either minded.

The change came slowly at first; they moved as they slept, awaking close together and touching, and not minding that, either. They quickly moved on to touching as they fell asleep, then holding as they slept. And it was _good_ and _right_. They were permitted this comfort, because it put them more at ease during the day; their fighting performance improved greatly.

One night, Yazoo awoke to Loz holding him tightly, breathing strangely, straining to remain still against his back. Yazoo shifted, and Loz realized that moving was _better_, and for a little while they only struggled against each other, Loz with his face hidden against Yazoo's neck and Yazoo looking over his shoulder with a dazed expression, both wondering and learning at once. And then Loz finally shuddered helplessly and moaned and fell still, and Yazoo turned under his arm and held him. They gently pressed their faces together, unaware of any other protocol.

And they were each the most beautiful and wonderful thing that the other had ever seen.

The weeks after that were difficult, in that the scientists tried to tell them things and convince them of things, speaking to them separately or together. They learned much, but the most important thing they learned was that there wasn't a thing that could or would be done to stop them. Their effectiveness together exceeded expectations, and was not to be jeopardized.

And the world changed again. Their existence became more than content, and for a long while, they had all that they needed, and the world was good.

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Current Music: _Enjoy the Silence _by Depeche Mode

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	2. Human Behavior

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

This starts out written fast n' vague, since it was originally not supposed to get as long as it did. It gets more detailed the further it goes. So, um... sorry about the stylistic variability?

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

This chapter is for Sharkcowsheep, who said, of porny fluff,

"Magnificent. Pluck it forth like a pouf of lint from a clothes dryer that only dries clothes made of sex."

* * *

* * *

**Human Behavior**

* * *

"Tell me what happened."

"I... I failed, sir."

"Again."

"I failed, sir."

"Correct. Your target was eliminated, but you failed to protect Twelve. And what error led to your failure, Eleven?"

"I could not move quickly enough, sir."

* * *

The world was good. They had only to perform the tasks they were given, endure the tests and treatments, and they were nearly always allowed the entire night to themselves. Time to rest, time to be together. Time to explore.

They found that there was a wide variety of reactions that they could cause in each other simply by touching, and nearly all of them bore repeating. They smiled for each other alone, spoke little but for the small sounds of want or acknowledgement that they made for each other. Held each other and moved together and were happy.

They figured out some _really nice_ things to do with mouths. Fingers, too. Lots of things to do, eventually.

The first time he used his mouth on Yazoo was the first time that Loz heard his voice at anything more than a murmur. It was intoxicating; Loz made sure to try for that response as often as he could. Of course, Yazoo did likewise, though getting the same level of sound out of Loz didn't seem to be as difficult.

The scientists stopped bothering to talk to them again. Some of them were obviously distressed over what was going on, but most of them didn't seem to care. Interesting and useful things began to appear in their room, so it was probable that at least one of the scientists thought it best to _encourage_ them.

They became even more deadly together. Eventually, even the highest-level monsters thrown at them presented no challenge, and the techs began to let loose two creatures at once. But between Yazoo with his short sword and Loz with his pilebunker, nothing could stand in their way. Each fight refined them further, their motions together becoming a sharp-edged dance.

Sometimes they didn't even make it out of the training room, after killing something particularly difficult. The heat from fighting was so similar to the heat they caused in each other that they'd be tearing at each others' clothing even before the body of whatever they'd fought went still. Messy, but good.

And then after, there was cleaning up, and that became a delightfully time-consuming trap as well. The sight and feel of their naked bodies together was more than either of them could resist. It didn't even occur to them to _try_ to resist.

The techs were always upgrading some part of the facility; heavier doors, better shielding spells, more surveillance cameras. Just in case, they said.

Eventually, they were given a monster that was difficult to take down - or rather, a set of monsters, three creatures of various elemental capabilities. They'd taken down the smaller two to stop their spell casting, and were moving on to the third, closing in on it from either side...

It lashed unexpectedly, moved in a way it shouldn't have been able to. Loz saw it happening, saw the spiked tail swinging, reached out - but couldn't move quickly enough.

The most horrible sound he'd ever heard was the _crunch_ of Yazoo's body hitting the sculpted false-rock of the outcrop they'd lured the monster toward.

Loz screamed and threw himself at the monster, unexpected curls of indigo fire flaring over his left arm; the uppercut delivered to the thing's jaw had more force than physics could provide behind it, even with the pilebunker. The side of the beast's head opposite the point of contact exploded.

He didn't even watch the massive body fall. He only turned away, stumbled toward Yazoo's still form. He collapsed next to him, turned him from his side to his back, pawed ineffectually at the blood in his hair and whimpered. Unable to speak, but for one word. "Yazoo?"

The short sword was snapped in two, the blade lodged in the outcrop and the grip still in Yazoo's hand.

He wanted... something. Wanted some sort of movement, wanted the pale lips to part, the long-lashed eyes to open, but there was nothing. There shouldn't be _nothing_...

The fact that he didn't know what crying was didn't mean that he didn't do it. All he knew was that it hurt, and his eyes burned, and that Yazoo wasn't moving.

The technicians were shocked when they got to the entrance of the room - Loz was already there, carrying Yazoo cradled against him. He laid the slight form on the waiting gurney and stood back a little, then followed as the techs took off toward the operating theater that the healer had been called to. He hung back, but followed, and not a one of the techs dared tell him not to.

It only took two Cure spells to ensure recovery. Yazoo hadn't been badly injured, only knocked unconscious.

One of the technicians turned, sighted Loz standing at the side of the room, hugging himself as though in a vain attempt to make himself smaller. Eyes wide and reddened.

"You don't have to cry," she said, taking a few steps toward him. "He'll be fine. Just let him rest."

None of the other techs had ever spoken to either of them before for anything other than relaying orders. Loz could only blink at her in surprise.

Never did see her again.

* * *

"I could not move quickly enough, sir." Loz stood at ease in front of his commander, and swallowed uncomfortably. At least they'd permitted him to remain at Yazoo's side until he'd regained consciousness. Yazoo had smiled at him, and he'd wanted to cry again and never leave, but all he'd done was smile back.

And then he'd immediately been ordered here.

"That is correct," the stern man in front of him nodded. His hair was silver too, but by age rather than design. "We have determined a course of action to correct this problem." He opened a small box on the desk behind him, lifting out a softly glowing, pale green orb. He balanced it on the tips of his fingers in front of him. "Do you know what this is?"

"Yes, sir. Materia, sir."

"That is correct. You have been instructed in the use of Materia?"

"Yes, sir."

"You'll be able to cast Haste on yourself with this." He handed Loz the Materia. "See to it that you're not too slow again, Eleven. You may go."

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Current Music: _Human Behavior _by Bjork

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	3. We Shout

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

This starts out written fast n' vague, since it was originally not supposed to get as long as it did. It gets more detailed the further it goes. So, um... sorry about the stylistic variability?

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

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**We Shout**

* * *

There didn't seem to be a reason for it, but one night, long after they'd tired and slept, Loz awoke. Yazoo was huddled with him in the darkness, hands on his chest, Mako-gleaming eyes wide. "Did you see it?"

"Hn." He had seen it. Fire, and destruction, and... something else...

He was trembling. Loz frowned, tightening his hold; Yazoo nestled against him, calming slightly.

"Something's changed," he whispered.

* * *

They'd been working on precision for a long time - maybe a year, Loz thought, based on the dates in the files they saw. Power was no longer a problem, so monsters were no longer enough to train with. There was now a small SOLDIER unit attached to the project, and Loz and Yazoo were commanded to incapacitate rather than kill.

In the first few fights, they hadn't been entirely successful. The first fight, a man died of his wounds before the techs came to take him, for which they were chastised.

The second fight went very well; they neutralized both of the SOLDIERs set to them in an intense battle. After, the exhilaration of it drew them together. Gunblades still in their hands, Yazoo pushed Loz back against a tree, kissing fiercely and tugging open the front of Loz's jacket with his free hand. Loz had just lifted his empty hand to Yazoo's waist when there was a sound to one side - one of the SOLDIERs was getting back up, and seemed to be upset.

"What the _hell?_" The man snarled, fumbling for his weapon on the ground with broken fingers. "We were _not_ just taken down by a couple of -"

He never did finish the sentence. Rather difficult to, with a bullet in the brain.

Yazoo smiled with cold satisfaction at the twitching corpse, left arm still outstretched, gunblade still aimed with muzzle smoking. He didn't lower the weapon or look away until Loz had his jacket open and progressed from licking along his neck to biting. Only then did he close his eyes, his smile warming.

It was a direct, intentional violation of their orders - something that had never happened before. Yazoo spent the next week locked in a concrete room too small to stand or lie straight in. Loz spent much of that time under sedation, while the techs worked on repairing the structural damage he did the first night.

They were almost constantly being questioned and given problems to solve now, too. It was as though the project had suddenly been pushed into overdrive for some reason.

While they knew _of_ Sephiroth, Nibelheim was only a word to them; it meant nothing. It had yet to be matched with the... change.

Of course, the added tasks cut into their time alone together. It was annoying, but accepted; they were aware that there was much for them to learn. They didn't know why, but it didn't matter, so long as they were allowed to be together.

At the end of the week, Loz sat at the table in their room, working on a set of logic problems. He'd only finished two so far since dinner, which could be blamed on the last dose of sedation still wearing off. If it wasn't for that, he was sure he'd be halfway through by now; he simply couldn't concentrate enough.

Of course, Yazoo would've been done already...

The door chimed and slid open; Loz looked toward it hopefully. They'd told him that they'd be bringing Yazoo back soon, and he'd tried as hard as he could to stay awake and wait...

Yazoo was moving stiffly, but standing painfully straight. He walked inside of his own accord, and didn't turn when the guards in the hallway that had accompanied him closed the door and locked it. His eyes were downcast, his mouth a thin angry line. The plain white cotton clothing - loose pants and a short-sleeved shirt that they wore when they weren't fighting - was stained with grime, and there were a few scrapes and bruises on his arms.

Loz had been resting his head on one arm on the table, and though he'd raised his eyes to the door, lifting his head seemed to be a problem. He waved slightly with his other hand instead, smiling in relief.

Yazoo's hands, slack at his sides, curled into fists as he raised his head to look at Loz. They'd drugged him. He was going to _hurt_ them for this.

He looked so angry, Loz thought. And filthy, with his beautiful hair unkempt, and the bruises...

His hands twitched. Anger was right for this. He successfully lifted his head this time, brow furrowed. "Yazoo -"

Yazoo's shoulders slumped, his eyes losing their narrow edge. "S'all right," he sighed. The door to their room was obviously new; Loz had _tried_. Drugging him was probably the best they'd been able to do to control him.

He walked forward with sore, hesitant steps until he was close enough to allow Loz to embrace him - as it looked like Loz probably wouldn't be too steady on his feet, for all that he was trying to get up now.

Yazoo ran his hand through Loz's short hair, melting in the warmth of the arms thrown around his waist. They'd been kept apart for a whole week. There had been the knowledge that it was temporary, that they'd be reunited, but still... an entire _week_... All because he'd shot one useless SOLDIER...

His scrapes and bruises he'd caused himself, screaming in frantic anger as he fought the space he'd been confined in... But Loz hadn't even been allowed the dignity of resistance, it seemed.

"It hurt," Loz murmured. "Being apart."

Yazoo smiled slightly in spite of himself. Loz sometimes had a talent for stating the obvious. "It won't happen again."

They were going to pay for this. The scientists, the techs, the guards, the SOLDIERs - all of them.

But not yet.

Yazoo quietly helped Loz to his feet, then toward the tiled bathroom. A hot shower would be good, even if all they could do was kneel in the water together.

As soon as the water was running, Yazoo turned to look over his shoulder, speaking softly - they were fairly certain that the techs could neither see nor hear them here. Loz had his hands on Yazoo's shoulders, ostensibly massaging, though from the way his head was drooping, it would probably be for support fairly soon.

"Loz, don't sleep," Yazoo murmured, unable to keep from smiling a little. "Listen."

Loz sighed, resting his forehead on the back of Yazoo's neck. "Hn."

It felt so good to be close to him again. Yazoo pushed him away a little, enough to turn and take his face in his hands. Loz blinked slowly, sliding his arms around Yazoo with a sleepy smile.

"I think there may be others like us," Yazoo told him, his voice as low as possible.

Loz's eyes widened, the smile slipping away in surprise. "Others?"

"The room they put me in - when I got there, there was already blood on the walls."

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Current Music: _We Shout _by t.A.T.u.

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	4. Center of the Sun

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

This chapter dedicated to Lightbulby.

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**Center of the Sun**

* * *

Yazoo sighed, lying facedown on the low bed, head resting in his arms. It seemed that there were pains that simply wouldn't leave his body since his confinement, no matter how much Loz tried to massage them away.

But that didn't discourage him from trying.

"The Commander lied," Loz muttered, lips barely moving, head bowed as he leaned over the younger clone. Yazoo could nearly feel the conflict radiating from him. "He never lied before. Why did he lie to us?"

It was the end of the second day since they'd been reunited. They'd been left alone most of the first day, but the second, it was back to training as usual. The Commander had spoken to them, making it clear that the punishments for any further infractions would increase in severity, and then asked if they had any questions.

They'd asked him where the other clones were. They were Eleven and Twelve; where were the other numbers?

The Commander had told them that numbers One through Ten had been destroyed.

They'd asked about higher numbers, younger clones.

And had been told, with stiff shoulders and clenched teeth, that there were none.

Yazoo opened his eyes, staring past Loz's folded leg - why was he still wearing pants? - toward the door of their room. "He's afraid," he whispered back. "He doesn't want us to know, because he's afraid of what we'll... be... together."

Loz's hands stopped moving. "There's... one," he murmured.

"I think so," Yazoo breathed, closing his eyes again. "Only one..."

"Tomorrow," Loz nodded to himself, hands sliding from Yazoo's shoulders and drawing down his sides as he leaned close. For a moment he only rested with his forehead against Yazoo's back; then his hands moved low, and his lips brushed skin. A question.

Yazoo turned onto his side, facing the older clone, reaching to stroke his face. The short hair that seemed to be trying to grow there fascinated him; _his_ face didn't do that.

Loz leaned into the touch with a small contented sound, eyes closed.

Yazoo rolled to his back and reached with his other hand, slipping two fingers under the waistband of Loz's pants. A definite answer.

The world was going to change again. They were certain of this.

But it hadn't changed yet.

* * *

It was difficult. In the morning session, they each held back as they had the day before, Yazoo more so, giving the appearance that they'd been shaken by their separation and were still recovering. Aim not as sharp as usual, barely blocking blows - it was pushing it to allow an opponent's strike to connect, but Yazoo let it happen once or twice.

The mid-day rations were shared in the cafeteria as usual, with the SOLDIERs occupying several of the hexagonal tables as far away as they could get from the one that Loz and Yazoo sat at (so much for that socialization project). Nothing out of the ordinary, except that they sat closer together.

Shielded by their proximity, they took turns working at the screws in the table's mechanism with their fingernails.

The afternoon session went much the same, for an hour. And then it was time.

They were supposed to be evading two SOLDIERS - but that only meant that the men never saw it coming.

In the ensuing commotion - with the other SOLDIERS sent into the artificially forested training room, and techs and medics pouring into the halls - the only still figures were Yazoo and Loz. They stood, back to back, each with a struggling hostage, in front of the one-way mirror that filled most of one wall of the training room.

"What do you think you're doing!" The man squirming in Loz's grip choked.

"You don't _need_ to be conscious," Loz placidly warned him, gunblade outstretched in his free hand.

The loudspeakers mounted in the high ceiling crackled to life. "Stand down!"

Yazoo glared at the mirror, his hostage head-locked under one arm, sweeping the area with his gunblade in the other hand. "We know that you lied to us, sir," he called out. Their Commander was in the observation room; that had been his voice.

There was silence but for the scuffling of the remaining SOLDIERs taking up position around them. The clones backed up to the window, dragging their hostages along.

The SOLDIERs shifted, eyes never leaving their prey. The hostages twisted and tried to break free, and failed. Loz and Yazoo stood still as statues.

The loudspeaker clicked a few times before the voice came again. "What do you want?"

Loz answered this time, clear and strong. "We want the Other, with us."

There was a shifting, and the door to the hallway beyond opened. The Commander entered, a hand at the side of his head, coldly staring at them as he removed his headset. "We can't have everything we want," he said quietly as he neared.

Both sets of blue-green, slitted eyes flicked toward him. "Why did you lie to us?" Yazoo asked, as though personally wounded.

"Orders are orders," the Commander nearly shrugged, but then straightened dangerously. His hands were empty and relaxed at his sides, but none of them were fooled. His next words were, again, an order. "Stand down."

The clones did not glance at each other, neither did they waver. "No, sir," Loz rumbled.

"You're rebelling," the Commander sneered in the most belittling tone he could muster. "You must be joking. What do you expect to do, once you have your third? Leave?"

Now the clones glanced at each other, for the briefest moment. "We don't want to leave," Yazoo answered. "We just want him with us. Nothing else has to change."

The Commander snorted, folding his arms. "You've already changed everything. What did you think would happen?" He stepped nearer. "What do you think happened to your predecessors?"

Their faces were still impassive, but the effect of the question was evident. Loz and Yazoo backed toward each other slightly, until they were nearly touching.

"Stand down," the Commander repeated. "You will not have another chance."

For a moment, nothing.

Then, as one, Yazoo and Loz released their hostages and lowered their gunblades. They stood back to back, leaning against each other now, heads lowered.

"Eleven," the Commander said, waiting until Loz looked up before continuing. "Report to the third operating theater for disciplinary action."

* * *

The first day in the tiny room wasn't so bad; it took most of the day for the sedation they used to get Loz in there in the first place to wear off.

The second day was more difficult. There was no way to stretch out, no way to _move_ the way Loz was used to. Next to no distraction from the discomfort, and not for lack of trying. Several levels away, Yazoo found it difficult to concentrate or sit still.

The fighting started on the third day. No amount of kicking seemed to have any effect on the walls or ceiling or metal door.

The third afternoon, the Commander came by, and Loz stilled with a kind of quiet despair that couldn't quite be mistaken for patience. "Not enjoyable, is it," the Commander said conversationally, peering through the observation slot on the door. "What do you think? Do you think that either of you will disobey again?"

He waited several minutes for the "No, sir," that would allow him to shorten the punishment. It was a dangerous balance, with these two - punishment versus how much they could take. Their psychological profiles were marked in red several times a page; the amazing thing was that it had taken this long for either of the two to disobey at all. Yet another benefit of having paired them together, it was assumed.

Loz didn't answer the Commander. He lay curled on his side, watching the blood that pooled and dripped from his raw knuckles.

There were long hours that night, in which Yazoo lay awake and staring at the ceiling of their room, and Loz lay on his back with his feet propped against the cell door. Occasionally he kicked or stomped in an apparently idle manner, but he hugged himself tightly, blood still dripping from his hands.

Long before the artificial dawn brightened the corridors, something changed. Yazoo curled on his side with his hands up as if to shield his head. Loz sat up in the near-total darkness, leaned back against the wall, and crossed his legs with the soles of his feet upraised, apparently in meditation.

After a little while, Loz opened his eyes again, and looked down at the sole of his right foot, illuminated by the thin light that filtered in through the observation slot. He rubbed at it a bit, glowing eyes half-lidded, as though sleepy.

On the bottom of his right foot was a tattoo - the number eleven, in simple dark blue ink. The mark had been there his entire life.

He shifted his foot out of the light and seemed to scratch at it, eyes closing.

In their room, Yazoo got up and began to restlessly pace again. He glanced at the door; since it had been replaced, there was no longer an access panel on this side at all. He frowned, and kept pacing.

High on the wall was a ventilation grate. It only took Yazoo a moment to remember it and drag one of the chairs over to it. He'd nothing to pry at it with but his fingernails - but after a few minutes, he had to give up even that. It was too tight, and now all he had to show for trying were aching fingers, a few of them bleeding. He crawled back into their bed and curled on his side again, sucking on the wounds and staring at nothing.

Without Loz, he had no way out.

* * *

By the time the lights brightened for the day, the damage was done. The world had changed again.

The technician sent to take morning rations to Loz stopped cold in the hallway, tray clattering to the floor. Blood had seeped out from beneath the metal door.

Loz didn't fight when they dragged him out, pale and sweating. He'd said what he wanted to say - no point in resisting right now.

The Commander came and stood over him while the technicians worked. They'd strapped him down to the operating table, but it didn't matter. The straps were nothing he couldn't destroy if he wanted.

The Commander circled the table, taking in Loz's blood-covered hands and still-bleeding right foot. All trace of the tattoo was gone, carefully clawed away. Loz had gone so far as to blot the wound against his clothing, to try to make sure that none of the ink-stained skin remained hidden in blood.

Loz watched the Commander, turning his head to follow the man's movements. The Commander finally looked him in the face.

It had been an utterly, completely foolish thing to do, but the meaning was clear.

_We do not belong to you. You cannot control us if we don't let you._

A healer finally arrived, Cure Materia in hand, but the Commander stopped him. "No spells. Clean and dress the wound, but let it heal on its own."

* * *

Loz sat at one of the hexagonal tables in the cafeteria, gnawing listlessly on a protein bar, wrapped foot outstretched. Yazoo sat across from him, chin in hand, poking at but failing to actually eat any more of the unappetizing rations.

"Idiot," Yazoo mumbled, not looking up.

Loz didn't look up either, but his lips twitched in what might've briefly been a smile. "You just wish you'd thought of it."

Yazoo rubbed at his shoulder, tilting his head away. _Still_ aches he couldn't work out. Loz had a point.

A chair between them scraped, and both of their heads snapped up - somehow, someone had come close to them without being detected at all.

The boy was younger than they were, with the same lank hair as Yazoo, though cut shorter, and the same plain, loose style of pants and shirt as they wore. He curled into the chair, hugging his knees to his chest.

And when he glanced up at them through his pale hair, it was with the same icy green eyes.

The three of them looked at each other for a moment. Loz glanced away, toward the door, where the Commander stood with two guards. The man turned and walked away.

"What numbers?" The boy asked, and Loz wondered if his or Yazoo's voices had ever been that light.

"Twelve," Yazoo responded, keeping his voice low. "My name is Yazoo."

"Don't have a number," Loz said cheerfully, biting into the protein bar again. It tasted better, all of a sudden.

"That won't last, Loz." Yazoo rolled his eyes, but Loz shrugged; he really didn't care at the moment.

Yazoo tilted his head, watching the way the boy's eyes flicked between them. "And you?"

"Fourteen," the boy said, looking down, afraid to make eye contact for long.

"No," Loz corrected, leaning forward. "Your name."

Fourteen looked up at them again. "Kadaj," he murmured, a little hesitantly, as though he'd never had to actually pronounce the name before.

There was a sudden crash across the room - a stack of folded tables that had been resting against the wall clattered to the floor, pinning one of the technicians that had been trying to move them. The man was howling, probably with broken bones.

Kadaj jerked aside to look, but neither Loz nor Yazoo blinked. "Hnh. Unstable things," Yazoo commented.

"Some of the screws must've come loose," Loz shrugged. "Bound to happen eventually."

Yazoo smiled the way he did when he wanted Loz to do something particularly interesting, offering Kadaj one of the still-wrapped rations from his tray. "Sweet?"

* * *

* * *

Current Music: _Center of the Sun _by Conjure One

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* * *

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	5. Lullaby

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

* * *

* * *

**Lullaby**

* * *

The younger clone simply shadowed them for that fist afternoon, quiet and distant, but showing no sign that he'd rather be elsewhere.

The techs re-arranged the room before their return - added another low bed, among other things. When they were permitted to return for the night, Kadaj ignored the bed and established himself curled under the table with a pillow and blanket. They'd already recognized that he didn't like to be touched, but that he found more comfort in a small sheltered space than with them - that was unexpected.

Loz limped to the table and sat down on the floor next to it with his back to the wall, and claimed that it would feel better to sleep sitting up, anyway, at least until his foot healed. Yazoo settled on the other side of the table and didn't bother to try to make an excuse at all.

It took weeks of this before Loz awoke to see Kadaj leaning heavily against Yazoo, still asleep. Yazoo raised his eyes to the elder clone, smiling softly. And then both of them waited and pretended to sleep and let Kadaj wake "first".

It didn't happen again the next night, but it did the night after that. And after the third time, Kadaj stopped trying to pretend it didn't happen.

They knew he watched them.

Being watched was nothing; the scientists always did that, though only through the cameras, most of the time. Others watched, sometimes, too. But there had never been a sense that it mattered.

It mattered now. Not because they did anything he shouldn't see; that concept had no meaning for any of them. It was because watching kept him separated, removed from them.

But it was better than nothing. Better than the way he flinched away if either of them tried to touch him. He did not accept any touch other than those he initiated, and those were few and far between, except for his sleeping against Yazoo.

Loz finally began to notice that when Kadaj did speak or allow touch, it was nearly always with Yazoo. It made sense - they were fairly certain that he'd never had anyone to be close to at all before, and Yazoo was more _like_ him. So it made sense that he'd become more comfortable with Yazoo first, they reasoned.

It still hurt a little.

Yazoo told Loz once, almost whispering, that he sometimes wanted to hold the boy more than anything, but that he was afraid of what would happen if he tried. Loz only stroked his companion's hair and whispered back that at least they could be together now, the three of them. It should be enough, shouldn't it?

Kadaj was very quiet. Sometimes he looked like he wanted to speak, but usually he seemed to think better of it before he actually said anything. Loz and Yazoo, conversely, found it easier to talk - they said more aloud now than they ever had, because they wanted to share with Kadaj, even if he didn't seem to want it.

He was often summoned away for examinations. Sometimes he came back with fresh bruises or broken skin, too - no worse than they'd come back with from their own, but more often. But he never spoke of the examinations, or of anything that had happened to him before he'd been brought to them.

At one point, while Kadaj was away, the Commander explained to them that the scientists hoped that they'd stabilize the boy, and that it seemed to be working. But he refused to elaborate further.

It wasn't long after Loz's foot healed that the techs took him to give him his number again. On the back of his shoulder, this time, where he couldn't quite reach it to tear at it on his own. Not as though Yazoo wouldn't do it if he asked; it was the statement that was important. That nothing they did would change what they were and where they belonged.

It was a bit too late to try to remind them of such things, really.

When he returned, Kadaj seemed to be anxious, and demanded to see. And it didn't matter to Loz how much the new mark ached, because Kadaj touched him - laid hands flat on his back, and then leaned against him and said that it was his fault, because Loz had torn himself up to bring them together, and he was sorry. But Loz only smiled and shook his head and said he'd do it again, and more, if he had to. Because it was better to be together.

With Kadaj at his back and Yazoo at his side, it was difficult for Loz to imagine how the world could be better.

It was interesting, watching Kadaj change. His voice deepened a little, but less than either of theirs had, and they wondered if it would change again later. His face thinned, his frame slowly stretching and filling out a bit. Sometimes, when they'd wake up at their appointed time, it seemed that his clothing had become smaller as he slept, with his pants creeping up his legs and his shirt barely able to cover him. He was frequently issued new clothing.

Loz and Yazoo could remember when they'd changed as quickly, but seeing it happen to another after so long was entirely different.

Kadaj was not the only one who changed. Loz and Yazoo learned restraint, to a degree. Once, at the end of a training battle, one of the SOLDIERS thought to catch Kadaj and bargain with him. He failed; the moment he turned his attention from Kadaj, the boy had done him a great amount of damage. But after that, no matter how good the fighting was, no matter how much they wanted each other afterward - for the sake of protecting Kadaj, they learned to resist.

...At least until they were returned to their rooms.

While most of the time he was simply observing, sometimes there was an edge to Kadaj's silence, a certain obliviousness, that they learned meant that he really wasn't there. It happened more often as he came to trust them more - as though he could resist it if he had to, but didn't see the need to as long as they were there.

On the days that he was least present, the nights were the worst. Kadaj would curl and whimper and scream if they came too near, and there was nothing that they could do for him.

On one of those nights, when he'd already been screamed at twice, Loz sat against the wall with his face at his knees and cried. Yazoo sat with him, his head on Loz's shoulder, rubbing at his back with one hand.

Not far off of frustrated tears himself, Yazoo murmured, "Don't cry, Loz."

Loz raised his head a little, but at the sound of Kadaj's voice, both of their heads snapped up.

"Yes, Loz, don't cry," Kadaj spat, his tone venomous. "You're fed and kept and given things to play with and kill and have Yazoo for everything else, so what do you care?" The boy's voice was rising, becoming a shriek. "This is your world and you don't need anything else and you're _happy_ here because you _don't_ _know_, neither of you know, you don't even want to _leave_ -"

"What is it that we don't know?" Yazoo asked, his voice strong and clear in a way that Loz had only heard a few times before. Loz looked at him wide-eyed - Yazoo did not shout, but his face was stone, and his hand on Loz's back was still. He was _angry_. "How can we know if you don't tell us? What is it that's so important outside?"

None of them had ever been outside. None of them had ever breathed air that wasn't recycled or seen light that wasn't artificial. Outside was only something they'd overheard the techs and scientists talk about, or read about in the texts they were given. It was abstract and unknown.

Loz and Yazoo had been told that they would be sent outside to wherever they were needed, once their training was complete. Kadaj had been given no such promise.

Kadaj was silent for a long time, lying mostly under the table, on his side with his back turned to them. But he answered eventually, with a word as abstract to Loz and Yazoo as the notion of "outside".

"Mother."

The world changed again.

They stayed up that entire night, simply talking, learning words for things unknown and finding ways to share concepts that they'd always simply taken for granted.

And Loz and Yazoo knew, without conferring, that Kadaj was what they'd lacked: purpose. He was the direction that they knew they needed as soon as he spoke. Even if they didn't understand everything he said now, they were certain that they would in time. It felt _right_, the same way that being together felt right.

Kadaj taught them the word "brothers", and after that night, that was what they were.

The scientists reviewed the footage from that night repeatedly, and worried over the changes they began to see in the clones. They worried that rather than simply being stabilized, the youngest's mania had somehow infected the elder two.

But the results were incomparable. Now all three of them barely spoke while fighting, giving no clue as to what action would come next. There hadn't been such a jump in effectiveness since they'd allowed the elder two each other.

And so no action was taken.

Time passed. It seemed uneventful, other than the number of accidents (particularly of the fatal variety) at the facility rising. There were those who had their suspicions about that, but nothing could be proven.

So far as the Commander was concerned, circumstances outside continued to deteriorate. With no opposition, the Shinra Electric Company effectively ruled the world - but with no opposition, the clones would doubtless be deemed obsolete before long. Particularly given what had happened with Sephiroth himself. It was only the intercession of Hojo that kept this offshoot project from being terminated, though - thankfully - he rarely visited, being more concerned with his other, more prominent projects.

Still, talk of placing the clones into the SOLDIER program ceased, and that worried the Commander. It was good that the three of them worked so well together - they could still function usefully as a strong separate force, even if they never were integrated into the military. He thought of sending along the suggestion that they be used against the growing anti-Shinra terrorist threat, but realized that if any of the three were removed, the remaining two would have difficulty functioning.

So he stepped up their training instead.

Kadaj's growth evened out; it became apparent that his build would likely be more broad-shouldered than Yazoo but still smaller than Loz, but his age kept him more slight and wiry than either.

Sometimes, the Commander wondered if the clones simply weren't biding their time, waiting for the youngest to mature. The boy was well on his way to becoming as dangerous as the other two, if not more so.

Perhaps unwisely, the Commander kept such thoughts to himself. And when the three of them looked at him, it was with contained ferocity, waiting for him to order their next move. When he saw this, it put his mind to rest, confident again that the clones were under his control.

And when he turned his back, their eyes shifted to each other in movements too small to be caught by the security cameras, and it was clear to them where control truly lay.

Kadaj began to watch his brothers more closely, slowly drawing nearer until one evening in the showers, it was he that touched Yazoo instead of Loz. And Loz found that watching could be just as fascinating as participating, though he didn't manage to keep to himself for long - not when both of them reached out to him.

The sounds that Kadaj made for them were just as sweet to Loz and Yazoo as the sounds they made for each other, and it wasn't long before they were competing to see which of them could bring more interesting sounds from the younger clone. It only lasted until he caught on, but his retaliation was... worth it.

The lack of sleep the next day made things difficult, but none of them seemed to mind. The logistics of adjusting their activities for three instead of two kept them occupied for quite a while.

The elder two tried to move slowly with him, remembering their own explorations, but Kadaj proved more impatient than either expected. No matter what they chose to do together, when the youngest was involved, he was clearly the controlling factor.

And the world was good, but they now knew this world to be an egg, and they knew that they would eventually break its shell.

Kadaj no longer suffered the way he had before they were brothers, even on those days when his mind was elsewhere. Nor did he sleep apart from his brothers any longer, most often now at ease between them, allowing their hands to rest on him.

When they dreamed, they were wrapped in warm soft green that whispered and sang to them. In dreaming, they were together such that sometimes, when they awoke, it was difficult to decipher whose thoughts were whose for the first few moments.

For a time, it appeared to the scientists that they were content only to be with each other - and for a time, they very nearly were. But even as the clones' world settled into a comfortable pattern, the world for the others at the facility unsettled with increasing severity.

And then came the dreams that called to the brothers when they were awake, and the need that grew so strong that all three of them could feel it, not just Kadaj.

And one designated morning, the three of them opened their pale green eyes together, and there was but one thought between them.

The time had come.

* * *

* * *

Current Music: _Lullaby _by Lamb

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(Please pardon the gratuitous Utena reference XD )

* * *

* * *

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	6. Silver Future

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

**Warning:** There's sex and sexual situations in here. It's mostly vague, but it's definitely there, definitely homosexual in nature, and, well, technically it's underage (legally speaking, anyway). If that bothers you, you probably shouldn't be reading this.

* * *

* * *

**Silver Future**

* * *

Time.

Kadaj shifted, lay on his back, his brothers on their sides flanking him. "We have to go," he whispered, mouth barely moving. None of them put it past the scientists to be able to read their lips.

"We know," Loz murmured, leaning in to nuzzle his cheek, large hand sliding down beneath the blankets and over his younger brother's waist. "Mother needs us."

"We need a plan." Kadaj turned to his side as well, leaning back against Loz and reaching up to run his fingers through Yazoo's hair. The night before had been... nice; none of them had bothered to dress for bed.

Yazoo shifted closer and leaned in to kiss Kadaj, who was pushed back a little further from the force of it. Loz smiled into Kadaj's hair as he felt Yazoo's hand graze across his, coming to rest at the younger clone's hip.

Kadaj shivered and broke the kiss. "Nnh. Plan."

"We have a plan," Yazoo told him, voice just as low, before tilting his head to kiss Loz as well.

Kadaj narrowed his eyes, glaring a little at his brothers doing Very Interesting Things with their tongues over his shoulder. Not much else for him to glare at, from this position. "How long?" He asked in a petulant whisper.

"Ages," responded Yazoo as he pulled back again. "Since you told us about Mother." His hand moved lower, down from Kadaj's hip, seeking. "Waiting for the right time."

"Later in the day's better. Night will cover more quickly that way. Assuming the daylight schedule in here matches what's outside," Loz added softly, before ducking his head and licking at Kadaj's neck, holding them tightly together. It was a chance they'd have to take; they'd never seen a window here, so there was no way to tell.

Kadaj grunted, his body tensing at Yazoo's touch. "But -"

"Don't worry." Yazoo smiled as he moved his hands, watching the way Kadaj's face flushed and his eyes unfocused.

"We'll lead." Loz moved against Kadaj's body, closing his eyes at the feel of it, then turned away and reached and fumbled with things at the side of the bed until he found the small, half-empty plastic bottle he was looking for.

Kadaj sighed, smiling and relaxing between them. "Why this... now?" He managed, running his hands over Yazoo's chest, shoulders, through his hair again.

Yazoo's own smile faded a little. "Last chance, maybe," he murmured.

"At least for a while," Loz amended, his movements slowing as he caught Yazoo's eye.

Kadaj looked between them; they were right. It was unrealistic to expect all three of them to make it, no matter how good a plan they had. And they'd no idea of what to expect outside...

"Didn't tell you to stop," he growled at Loz, shifting to make it easier for his elders.

* * *

It was excruciating. The morning training seemed to take eons, but the worst part was that they could give no outward sign of expectation.

Loz and Yazoo remembered the day of their first attempt to win Kadaj, and hoped that this day would go better. But they knew from that attempt that reasoning was useless; they'd have to fight their way out.

They waited.

They were still given their mid-day meal in the same large room with the SOLDIERs and scientists and techs. They sat at three sides of their hexagonal table, empty sides between them, facing each other and - apparently - closing out the world around them.

"Which one?" Kadaj asked quietly, a little more of their plan having been revealed to him.

Yazoo spoke just as softly, staring at the rations on his tray. "Third table to the left of the doorway, second row. Facing us."

Kadaj let his gaze easily and swiftly pass over the indicated area of the room. And then back to his food. "What, him? Seriously?"

"He has access," Loz shrugged. "His badge says he's top level."

"But he's... Seriously?"

"You should see him when he thinks we're not looking, during the examinations," Yazoo murmured.

"Practically drooling," Loz added.

Yazoo glanced up at him. "What do you mean, 'practically'?"

Loz snickered.

Kadaj frowned at his rations. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"He's not the first."

"And it's useful."

"Here, watch him," Yazoo said, standing to return his tray. He moved slowly, smiling with lowered eyes at Kadaj, trailing his hand over Loz's shoulder as he passed.

Kadaj watched from the corner of his eye, then turned to Loz with an incredulous expression mostly hidden by his hair. "He dropped his fork." He glanced back at the scientist, then at his brother again. "That's... really the whole plan?"

Loz snickered again. "Not entirely. But he'll make it easier. We'll have to fight less, with his codes to get us through."

Kadaj focused on his food again. "We're going to die."

* * *

They waited, and the moment finally arrived. It was their third bout of physical training for the afternoon, and they were set upon by three of the SOLDIERs - at this point, they knew them by name - and three monsters. Solan, Markt, Wilson, two Zolkalters, and a Diablo.

The Diablo was what they'd been waiting for.

It didn't take long to maneuver the Diablo into using its horn bomber attack in the right direction - namely, at the one-way observation window that they knew the scientists lurked behind. The monster's attack alone wouldn't have been enough, but between that and their own attacks, the window cracked.

It might've looked like an accident, had Loz and Yazoo not whilrled and fired on the SOLDIERs. Markt and Wilson fell within three shots - two to take out their helmets and the third to penetrate. Solan had the sense to take cover instead of trying to dodge or block. Kadaj leapt through the new gap in the wall. The rampaging Diablo roared and tried to follow, but a after a thrashing moment, its body slumped partway through the opening. Kadaj had taken care of it.

Loz and Yazoo worked at dispatching the Zolkalters, but it was difficult, with Solan screaming and attacking like he'd been hit with a Berserk spell. He'd have reinforcements coming in at any moment, too.

One of the Zolkalters scuttled up the Diablo's body and into the observation room; Loz made to follow, but glimpsed the second of the monsters pouncing on Yazoo. He turned just in time to see his brother jamming his gunblade - and most of his arm - down the thing's throat and firing repeatedly.

The problem with Zolkalters was that they were poisonous, and the thing was spewing what was at best toxic saliva over Yazoo's arm as it convulsed and died. Yazoo scrabbled madly, trying to disengage, but the creature wasn't so much _heavy _as _dug in_, its insectile legs stabbed immovably into the soil. The sting-tipped tail lashed, arched up and over, and jabbed into the ground as well, barely missing Yazoo's head...

...Just before Loz flung the carcass away. It narrowly missed Solan.

He hauled Yazoo to his feet, resisting the urge to paw at him to check for damage; there wasn't time. Yazoo only nodded in reassurance as they ducked into the control room.

Kadaj was pulling his double-bladed sword from a corpse that was slumped against the console, still making noise as it tried to breathe. Only one of the scientists was left alive, and he cowered against the wall with wide eyes, staring alternately at his dead comrades, the mostly-severed head of the Diablo, and the twitching limbs and tail of the Zolkalter whose trunk still writhed on the floor, screeching.

Yazoo crouched in front of the trembling survivor, smiling slightly and tilting his head. "He _is _pretty, isn't he?" he mused, brushing the man's wavy brown hair away from his face with his right hand.

His left arm, gunblade still in hand, hung motionless at his side.

The man's eyelids lowered slightly when he looked at Yazoo. "I - I... What?"

"Ss-Stand down," a gurgling voice came from a corner of the room. Loz and Yazoo looked up quickly, instinctively responding to the voice.

Their Commander slowly got to his feet, pushing himself up against the wall for support, bleeding badly. His right arm was missing from the elbow down, and his left clutched at slashes in his stomach. Twin gashes blazed red at his throat.

Kadaj narrowed his eyes. "You've got a Regen Spell, haven't you," he sighed, scowling.

Loz and Yazoo glanced at each other, suddenly unsure. They hadn't been certain that he'd be in the room, but had known what they'd have to do if he was. But the way that Kadaj had just cut him down, without meaning or respect -

"What do you idiots think you're doing?" The Commander snarled, a little stronger this time. "Haven't you learned? Rebellion is _beneath you _-"

"Did that line ever work on Sephiroth?" Kadaj asked, suddenly clear and cold.

It was an invocation, and the Commander knew it. Somehow, these clones knew something of Sephiroth's power, knew that he'd broken _free_, without ever having been told. He was losing control. "Don't listen to them," he snapped at the cowering scientist, hoping that the situation was still salvageable.

Shouts erupted anew from the training room - more than just Solan's voice now. Reinforcements were arriving. Probably medics with Phoenix Down, too. Loz turned to look through the opening, raising and cocking his gunblade.

Yazoo tilted his head again, looking sadly at the Commander, as though disappointed in him. "We only want to be free," he murmured, before turning his heavy-lidded gaze on the scientist. "Do you know, we've never seen sky?" He slowly blinked, tilting his head to the other side. "It's gone so quiet - no more talk of war or the purpose we are trained for. Soon they'll cancel this project, won't they, and that will be the end of us."

Loz fired three times, Mako-bullets scattering the advancing troops and bringing at least one down. His scowl became more troubled at Yazoo's words, nearly a pout. None of them were foolish; they knew, or could guess, now, what fate was in store for them. It was hearing Yazoo speak of it so calmly that bothered him.

It was getting to the scientist as well. "No," the man said, nervously adjusting his glasses - and seeming to relax a little, sitting a bit more upright. "No, I don't -"

"Not fair, is it?" Yazoo sighed, looking away sadly.

He was reeling the scientist in now. The mousey-haired man shifted uncomfortably. "Look, I - No. It's not. But -"

The Commander seemed to forget that Kadaj was standing in front of him with sword in hand. "For godssakes, Jaxon, don't listen -"

Kadaj suddenly whirled, bringing his blades to the Commander's throat and stopping just short of slicing into him again. He grinned as he made eye contact, toying with him, watching the man gasp and struggle to hold himself unnaturally still.

"To have never even seen the sun..." Yazoo turned his gaze on the scientist again, speaking over the Commander as though he no longer existed. Another tie severed. "You'd rather see us free, wouldn't you." It was a statement rather than a question, and Yazoo emphasized the "us" just so, extending an implicit invitation to Jaxon.

Loz calmly stood to the side of the observation window, reloading. A few bullets whizzed through the opening, but most of them struck the bulletproof glass, creating cobwebs of cracks upon impact. From this side of the one-way mirror, they could see the guards cautiously advancing, unable to see them inside.

"Eleven!" The Commander shouted, eyes flicking toward Loz. The mere movement of shouting caused Kadaj's blades to cut, two more thin lines of blood joining the already mostly-healed slashes. "Eleven, you can stop this -"

Loz finished reloading his gunblade and stared down at it as it clicked shut, and sighed. After all that had happened, the Commander was trying to divide him from his brothers. He'd expected better of this man that had ruled their lives for as long as they could remember.

"Name's Loz," he said easily, his expression placid, raised the gunblade and fired in one swift motion.

The bullet sped past Kadaj's hair close enough to shift the strands, and the younger clone's grin never wavered. He watched with only excitement in his eyes as part of the Commander's head broke away, textured red spattering against the wall behind him.

Kadaj turned as the twitching body fell, his smile nothing but warm and joyful, eyes still wild. "Let's go." He hopped lightly onto one of the consoles and made four quick slashes with his sword, easily breaking away the grating over an air vent set into the wall that was large enough to crawl through. It would be pointless to try the doors by now; the guards would just be waiting outside. "Bring him," he called over his shoulder to Yazoo.

Yazoo smiled back and extended his right hand to Jaxon. "Please?"

It only took the man a moment to accept, placing his hand in the clone's, his skin pale against the black of Yazoo's glove. As he was pulled to his feet, Jaxon's gaze never left Yazoo's face, despite his slightly shocked expression.

Loz holstered his gunblade at his back and waited until firing ceased and the prey outside had crept close to the break in the window before moving. The pilebunker on his left arm snapped to ready, primed, and fired as he whirled and punched into the Diablo's corpse.

The rather messy explosion took out several of the opposition and provided a good several minutes of cover for them to get into the air duct.

* * *

* * *

Current Music: _Silver Future _by Monster Magnet

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	7. More Human Than Human

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

**Warning:** Violence. :-D

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* * *

**More Human Than Human**

* * *

By the third security gate, Dr. Jaxon seemed to have come to terms with the situation. They moved quickly now, weapons unsheathed, Loz first, Jaxon and Kadaj in the middle, and Yazoo trailing behind. When they paused at the gates, it was Yazoo that held the scientist, right arm over his shoulders, heads close together, as he activated the portals with codes and hand-scans and eye-scans.

"Thank you," Yazoo said quietly, close enough that his breath tickled the man's ear.

Jaxon shivered, eyes narrowing. "I'm dead if I don't, any way you look at it," he responded, a bitter note in his voice, his expression less angry than tired. "Probably dead anyhow. I'm not a fool. You'll kill me as soon as I'm useless."

Yazoo frowned with what his brothers easily recognized as feigned hurt. "_I_ won't kill you," he said, nearly pouting. "I promise. You've taken our burden onto your shoulders. Killing you would be no way to thank you."

Loz glanced over, frowning a little as the reinforced glass door slid open. It was neither gratitude nor seduction nor actual affection that made Yazoo lean on the scientist like that...

They met resistance again in the next corridor. Jaxon simply crouched at the wall with his hands over his ears, eyes clenched shut.

Kadaj pulled the man to his feet when they'd finished, hauling him by the elbow past Yazoo and Loz as they scavenged the bodies for ammunition. The hallway ended in a high-ceilinged, circular chamber, more glass doors lining the walls, with escalators at the center of the room that hummed away down into another chamber.

Though they now knew - thanks to Jaxon - that the light that filtered through the dome above was artificial, they still stared, and wondered at the room full of light and ornamental plants. It was less than a mile of corridor away from the labs they knew as home, but it was bright and pleasant and entirely unlike the world they knew.

"Down the escalators," Jaxon said as Yazoo and Loz came alongside. "We need to take the tram to-"

He never finished the sentence. Kadaj felt him give a violent jerk and turned as he began to fall forward; Yazoo caught him with one arm. Both looked down - large shards of ice were jutting from his midsection.

The attack had come from behind; either more security, or the ones they'd just finished with had had Phoenix Down that they'd missed. It didn't matter. Loz was already returning fire, and Kadaj and Yazoo lurched toward the escalators, nearly tumbling down when Kadaj slipped, Jaxon still suspended between them.

Loz jumped out of the way of two more Ice spells before flinging himself down as well, half-sliding and half-rolling down the metal space between the two escalators. He tumbled to a halt on the tiled floor at the bottom, swiftly picking himself up and glancing about to get his bearings, sweeping his coat aside. He never could understand how his brothers could so easily deal with the long coats they'd been issued - damn things got in the way.

Kadaj and Yazoo were already dragging Jaxon into the first tram compartment, Kadaj slipping away to set the override controls; Loz joined them just as the doors slid shut.

The small train shuddered, then began to move, and was soon hurtling down the tunnel at high speed.

Loz turned from the door to see Yazoo sitting tiredly against the wall, Jaxon cradled against him. The Ice shards were already mostly melted, a puddle of diluted blood spreading wide around them.

"Told you," Jaxon coughed, leaning heavily into Yazoo. "Dead."

Yazoo glanced up at Loz. They'd no Cure spells or Potions, but they wouldn't have wasted them even if they had. "Told you I wouldn't kill you," he said quietly, smiling softly as Loz knelt next to them.

The scientist smiled back and made a sound that might've been laughter, if it didn't dissolve into sickening coughs and moans right away.

"Here, sit up a bit," Yazoo suggested, pushing Jaxon upright so that he leaned against the wall. When he was mostly extricated from the dying man, he lifted his chin with one finger, looking him in the eye.

"Goodbye."

Jaxon's face barely registered confusion as he felt Loz's gloved hands on either side of his head. It was simply too fast - realization only just dawned as the eyes, suddenly facing Loz, dulled.

Loz dropped the corpse; the head, neck broken, jostled loosely with the motion of the train. He didn't even look at it. "The zolkalter got you," he said unnecessarily, poking at the material on his brother's sleeve and finding a few rips.

"Hn." Yazoo raised his left arm for inspection, gunblade dangling a bit loosely in his numb fingers. "Didn't get a full bite. Just some venom leaked through where its teeth broke skin. I'm good for a while yet." A little blood dripped from his cuff.

"You sure?"

With effort, Yazoo bent his arm, laying it across his lap. "I'll sleep it off."

Loz frowned at the wound a moment more, then moved back, quickly unbuckling the straps of his shoulder guards and letting them fall away.

Yazoo blinked slowly - the poison _must_ be taking effect, because he couldn't figure out what his brother was doing. "Loz...?"

Shrugging out of his coat, Loz took up his gunblade again and began to hack away at the lower half of the coat. "Gonna bind it up," he said, tearing off a few long strips before removing most of the material below the waist. "Pressure should slow it down."

"It's a bit late for that. Poison's already -"

"I meant for the bleeding."

Yazoo tilted his head. "You just want an excuse to cut up your coat."

"Hn." Loz smiled faintly, visibly relaxing.

From the control compartment, Kadaj looked over his shoulder, brow furrowed.

It was obvious, when they reached the far platform, that they were walking into a trap. The area was deserted, the claxons silent. The large room was fairly dark - the lights had been shut off, and the air recycling as well, from the feel of it - but with their inhuman eyes, what little light was left was sufficient.

They exited the tram together, Loz and Yazoo flanking Kadaj, warily crossing to the elevators on the far side of the room - but they met no resistance. No guards or SOLDIERs leapt at them from the shadows, no automated systems kicked in to lock the place down, nothing.

"This is too easy," Kadaj muttered, pushing the call button for the elevator.

They fully expected the next attack to come from the elevator - but the doors opened to an empty chamber, and the stillness of the room did not change.

The sense of travel, as the elevator car sped upward, was bewildering. Of the three of them, only Kadaj had ever experienced the like before, and that had been so long ago that he didn't remember it well.

They knew now that the entire facility was far underground. Jaxon had said so, and it made sense - the way the air became stale sometimes, and the lack of openings to the outside. And the way the lights determined day and night, with days sometimes stretching as long as necessary, rather than following the set pattern of the sun that they'd been taught. They'd noticed, but thought little of it, until Jaxon explained.

And now they waited, riding in the elevator like a bubble rising in water. Kadaj concentrated on cleaning the blood from his twin-bladed sword with his fingers; Loz and Yazoo reloaded and took stock of their ammunition, speaking softly, Yazoo leaning in the corner.

The elevator jerked to a halt, its lighted buttons indicating that it hadn't reached the top yet. There was no hesitation - Kadaj slashed an opening into the ceiling, and Loz helped his brothers out onto the roof of the car before climbing out himself.

A hissing sound began before he'd completely hauled himself out - the car was flooding with gas. Kadaj scowled down at the white wisps creeping out of the opening, then up at the shaft around them. This part of the shaft was long and empty - an ideal place to trap them.

There was a sound of grating metal; above them, a widening crack of light suddenly appeared. Doors were being forced open.

Kadaj leapt, feet striking the wall of the shaft for the briefest instant before launching again, carrying himself up in a series of small jumps. Loz and Yazoo glanced at each other; Loz nodded, and Yazoo leapt as well, landing lightly on Loz's arm to be hurled upward.

Loz looked up as his brothers reached the open door above, the light shifting with swift shadows and cries as they passed through. He didn't wait any longer - he clamped one hand down hard over the elevator cable, then twisted, shooting out the breaks at the four corners of the car. The greased cable went taut in his hand as the fourth brake released; with one more glance toward the doorway above, he shot out the opposite side of the cable. As the car fell, he was pulled upward.

He grinned. It was like flying. The air felt different - cooler, but more humid, with a strange edge to it that he'd never sensed before. Something like the air in the training room, with all its transplanted vegetation, but... bigger, somehow.

He blinked once as he reached the doorway - no distractions, now. The pilebunker was primed by the time he leapt through the door, and within two blows, he'd reached his brothers and passed his gunblade to Yazoo. Only one shot left in it at the moment, but it could still cut and shield.

The elevators were situated in a spacious hallway that opened, directly ahead, into some larger room by way of a staircase that parted in the center, the two branches flanking a large desk between. In the center of the room's smooth black tiles, the ShinRa logo blazed in burgundy and brass. The lobby.

Checkpoints blocked the corridor, with more at the tops of the staircases. Oddly reddish light spilled into the hall.

By the time they reached the top of the stairs, above the desk, the tiled floor of the hall was slick with blood. There was movement behind them, twitches and groans, but no further opposition.

The ceiling of the lobby was a glass dome - not frosted, this time, but clear. For the first time, they saw the sky.

It was vast, and wide, and... red. Something large was suspended there, all fire and menace, and it was neither sun nor moon.

There was no time for study; they were being fired upon. The three of them jumped the railing, taking cover behind the desk, reloading and returning fire.

* * *

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Current Music: _More Human Than Human _by White Zombie

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* * *

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	8. Just Like You Imagined

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

**Warning:** More violence. :-D

* * *

* * *

**Just Like You Imagined**

* * *

It seemed to take a long time before the attacks slowed. They'd already thrown all they could from behind the desk, and Loz and Yazoo were low on ammo, even counting what they'd looted.

They lay behind what remained of the desk, Kadaj centered with his brothers on either side. Occasionally one of the guards across the lobby would fire, and another piece of the desk would break away.

It was as close to restful as they were going to get.

Kadaj stared at the glass ceiling, oblivious, his sword clutched over him as though he were a knight entombed. It was hard to tell if he was actually seeing the darkening sky or... something else entirely.

As he reloaded, Loz looked over at Yazoo. His brother was facing away from them, panting slightly; the exertion had made the effects of the venom worse. He couldn't even move his left arm at this point, which was why he'd handed Loz's gunblade back to him.

"Yazoo," Loz began, but winced and closed his eyes as another barrage whittled away at the desk.

"Hn." He'd turned to look by the time Loz opened his eyes. Yazoo's face was pale, his own eyes dull and shadowed.

Loz shoved his gunblade into his brother's hand, taking Yazoo's so as to reload it.

"It's jammed," Yazoo told him, smiling weakly.

Loz scowled. "Well, then, we _have_ to get out of here," he grumbled. "Because somewhere -"

There was another hail of bullets, topped off with an Ice spell that stabbed through the desk just above Kadaj's face. Loz irritably grabbed the shard of ice and broke it away; Kadaj grinned up at him.

"Somewhere in this world, there's got to be better gunblades than these pieces of JUNK!" Loz shouted, frustrated, as he turned and flung the useless gunblade over the desk and to one side. He ducked back down as the guards opened fire, uselessly tracking the object.

They managed to destroy one of the support pillars at the side of the room. It collapsed in a rain of concrete fragments and dust.

He turned back to his brothers as the pillar fell. They were both grinning now. There was more color in Yazoo's face than had been there a moment ago, and he clutched the remaining gunblade at his chest.

Loz couldn't help but smile back. It kept him in control - losing his temper would do them no good.

"Mother's waiting," Kadaj murmured, eyes alight with expectation. "Ready?"

It hadn't really been a question. Both he and Yazoo rolled forward, away from the remains of the desk, without waiting for an answer. Loz punched into the floor with the pilebunker, sending tiles and desk flying with the shockwave, and they were off.

Kadaj and Yazoo split off to the sides. Loz took the middle, emerging from the dust and debris, using his Haste spell and randomly changing his path to avoid fire.

It became obvious, from the moment they left cover, that their opposition was as desperate as they were, if not more so. The facility had become understaffed, and they were throwing everything they had at the renegades, right down to the Techs cowering in the back with reloads.

Another support pillar fell, slipping at an angle, cut cleanly from its base - Kadaj's work. It was opposite the one already destroyed, and the roof at the rear of the room began to sag inward, all creaking metal and breaking glass.

Something to the opposite side exploded - a spell gone awry when Yazoo shot the guard casting it. Another pillar suffered the impact, part of it shattering, and the rest bowing over the break. More of the ceiling began to fall.

Kadaj broke into Loz's field of vision, almost dancing through the chaos - two more guards fell before him in the moment that it took Loz to see him. Three had fallen so far under Loz's fists, and he'd managed to draw a few others into firing on each other.

He could hear shots from Yazoo's direction, but they seemed so agonizingly slow...

And then there was a rush of that strange air, and a voice.

"Enough!"

The room fell silent, but for the creaking of the roof and the settling of debris.

"Hey, Corvis," Kadaj said easily, greeting the SOLDIER First Class as though they were friends casually passing. He straightened, spattered with blood - none of it his own - and twirled his dripping sword, allowing it to come to rest over his shoulder. "Where've you been?"

Corvis and the two lower-class SOLDIERS with him, Duke and Banner, edged to the front, waving off the hapless Techs behind them. The Techs made for the doors.

"Not a good day," he responded, almost as easily - but there was a strained edge to his voice, and he glared at them from beneath his wavy black hair. "Went out to take care of some monsters and got a call that two of my men had been killed." He stretched his arms over his head, hands close to the hilt of his Buster Sword. "And then I get back and the place is a mess. You'd think Meteor had come down early." His eyes flicked up toward the thing in the sky.

Loz straightened as well. He was less blood-covered than Kadaj, but his shoulder guards hung loosely from broken straps, his shortened coat slashed open. His chest bled from a long, shallow cut.

He briefly followed Corvis' gaze - Meteor. So that was what the thing in the sky was called.

It sounded familiar, somehow.

Kadaj tilted his head to the side, smiling. "It'll be grand, when it happens," he said softly. "All that power for Mother -"

"_Shut up_," Corvis snarled, the civil facade falling away. "I've had enough of you _freaks_ -" He drew his sword.

"Whaddaya know," one of the flanking SOLDIERs - Banner - exclaimed, having moved off to the side. Loz stiffened, but Banner's focus was behind one of the support pillars, hidden from view. "Sir, we've got one of 'em down alrea-"

Three quick shots - two for the helmet, one for the head. Loz grinned. Yazoo was still there, and now Banner... wasn't.

Corvis roared, flying at Kadaj. The remaining SOLDIER - Duke, a lancer - advanced on Loz, twirling his polearm. The remaining guards fell back toward the doors, several fleeing outright.

His grin turning rather feral, Loz rushed the SOLDIER, pilebunker snapping to ready again. The helmeted man deflected the first two punches with his lance, then unexpectedly struck with the unbladed end of his weapon, delivering a sharp blow to Loz's temple.

Loz stumbled back, reeling for a moment. The SOLDIERS had never moved like this before. They'd been going easy -

Duke leapt, stabbing down sharply with the lance. Loz rolled aside just in time, closing his eyes against the sudden dizziness.

He caught sight of Yazoo pushing himself upright against the wall, fending off a guard that rushed at him with a kick to the man's jaw. To his other side and behind him, Kadaj wove between the remaining pillars, pretending that Corvis was forcing him back. He wondered if Corvis would fall for it.

Loz pitched backward, nearly off-balance, as the lancer stabbed again. It was hard to see from his right eye...

Blood. His head was bleeding. Dammit.

There was a sharp cry to the side - Kadaj held a hand to his face, blood seeping from between his fingers. Corvis laughed, saying something about childish vanity.

Kadaj's features contorted with enough rage that the SOLDIER cut off in mid-laugh, taking a step backward. And then Kadaj was on him again with a scream, like hate given sharp-edged physical form.

The spear came down, barely missed again; Loz flipped backward as the SOLDIER advanced, twirling the weapon. He jumped the first sweep to his legs, blocked - but the second sweep took him down. He landed heavily on his back near where the desk had been, broken glass from the ceiling crunching beneath him.

Through the broken dome, it seemed like Meteor was nearly directly above them.

Kadaj screamed again, dropping, his upper right leg spattering blood on the broken tiles.

Duke stomped down, heavy boot crushing Loz's right hand with a snapping sound. The butt of the lance ground into his left forearm, pinning him to the floor. Stretched out with the cut to his chest pulled so, he could barely draw breath.

"Can't say I'm sorry to see you go," Duke said cheerfully, replacing the lance on Loz's arm with his other foot. He twirled the lance, lifting it high and aiming for Loz's throat.

Loz flung his legs up, caught Duke about the waist, and threw him to the floor. He didn't release his hold - instead he rolled with the motion as he sat up, using the momentum to fuel a punch to the SOLDIER's head.

There was a terrible, wet crunching sound. Duke's limbs flailed weakly, then settled to an odd twitching.

Loz blinked slowly, pulling his fist from the SOLDIER's skull. Oddly, the pilebunker hadn't even fired - it had been damaged when Duke had smashed his arm into the floor. He wrinkled his nose as he shook the gore from his hand, pulling himself away from the corpse.

And then his head snapped up. Yazoo's side of the room was silent, and Kadaj -

Kadaj roared, and there was a scream of metal, and Corvis' Buster Sword was cleaved through. Two thirds of the oversized blade fell away, one large piece and one narrow, clattering to the floor. The SOLDIER blocked a few more blows with the remainder, but finally, Kadaj caught it between the two blades of his sword and twisted the weapon from his opponent's hands.

With a snarl, Corvis drew his fist back, the iridescent fire of a Materia-enhanced attack spreading over his arm.

He never delivered the blow. Kadaj slashed, and his arm fell away, the power flickering out as Corvis screamed.

Kadaj was grinning, twirling his sword again - he was frightening, even to his brothers, no matter how proud they were of him. "Perhaps if you get on your knees now," Kadaj suggested, unnaturally calm considering the ferocity of his expression, "I might accept it when you beg for forgiveness."

He was playing again, drawing everything he could from his prey before delivering the killing blow. Making the experience last.

Loz didn't watch. Instead, he grabbed up Duke's lance in his left hand - he couldn't curl half the fingers of his right - and stood slowly. The room spun a little, but within a few steps, his path was certain enough that he could deal with it.

Yazoo was slouched against the wall, very still. For a moment, Loz squeezed his eyes shut against the mental image that sprang up from so many years ago - Yazoo at the base of the artificial rocks in the training room, head bleeding, sword broken.

And then Loz opened his eyes again, falling heavily to his knees before his brother. He tore the glove from his right hand with his teeth, ignoring the taste and the pain that it caused his broken fingers, and clumsily pushed his hand against his brother's neck, trying to feel for a pulse.

He got more than he'd hoped for; Yazoo's eyes opened slightly at the contact. "Sorry," he breathed, fingers twitching at the grip of his gunblade. "I... fuzzed out, a bit, there..." He blinked groggily. "That... Corvis, screaming?"

"Yeah." Loz sat back, wondering why he still felt like crying even though it seemed like Yazoo would be okay. He looked up, remembering how many guards had been in the room before - but they seemed to have all fled.

"Loz..."

His eyes landed on the glass doors to the outside, broken open at this point. The air that rushed through was damp and wild and smelled of things other than blood.

"_CORVIS!_ _NO!_"

Loz glanced over his shoulder at the cry. Solan had finally managed to get up to the lobby. "C'mon," he said turning back to Yazoo. "Solan's..."

His voice trailed off. Yazoo was slumped to the side again, unconscious.

Kadaj walked to the center of the room, shouting as he came to stand defiantly over the ShinRa logo. "Solan! Come play!"

There was a glorious moment in which it felt as though they'd won.

And then Loz saw the movement behind Kadaj.

It wasn't even one of the guards. It was a medic. The scrawny woman was rushing Kadaj from behind, arm outstretched, green flame licking at her fingers.

There was nothing Loz could do - no way he could be fast enough in this nightmare, even with the Haste spell.

"_KADAJ!_"

It was strange, the way his limbs suddenly felt cold and heavy as he saw his younger brother keel forward, collapsing into the rubble without a sound.

Loz reached his side in a blur; the woman saw him coming, shrieked, and stumbled back, toward the door. It didn't matter. She was nothing. No longer a threat.

The useless lance was still in his hand; he flung it aside - it was just getting in the way now. Even without it, it took him a moment to turn his brother onto his back. He seemed so frail and light, features relaxed -

Asleep. She'd hit him with a Sleep spell. Loz nearly laughed.

"Corvis..." Solan was crouched over his commanding officer, frantically pawing through the surrounding debris.

He was looking for pieces before the body cooled. He must have a Phoenix Down.

Loz stumbled over to to Yazoo, dragging him over his right shoulder and holding him in place with his arm, right hand nearly useless. By the time he made his way back to Kadaj, Solan was standing back from what remained of Corvis, opening a small metal case in his hands.

He managed to get Kadaj under his left arm, half-supported on his hip, and began to stagger toward the doors. He wasn't sure if it was difficult to see because it was getting dark or because of the blood in his eyes, or both, but it didn't matter. They were ten steps from getting _out_. Nine. They'd get outside, and then... and then they'd be free, and they'd find Mother, and...

Loz jolted in shock, nearly dropping his brothers.

For a long moment he stood, staring at the darkness beyond the doors. Then he looked down at himself.

The tip of Duke's lance was sticking out of him, just below his ribs.

He frowned, brow knit in confusion, before turning slightly - which hurt a great deal more than it should, he thought - to look behind him.

Solan stared back, his hands tight on the shaft of the polearm. Beyond him, Corvis' body was enveloped in a golden glow, being regenerated by the Phoenix Down.

After another few heartbeats, the SOLDIER yanked the lance back, drawing it from Loz's back. His eyes were wide, more frightened now than determined. They stared at each other for a little longer.

And then Loz turned away again, and took another step forward.

Eight. Seven. Six more steps, and they'd be _out_ _of_ _here_.

Solan stepped backward, trembling, and finally dropped the polearm. At a sound behind him, he turned back to his commanding officer.

Loz nearly didn't notice when he actually crossed the threshold. The smooth floor changed texture - concrete now - and to the sides, and ahead of him, there was nothing.

Nothing.

No walls.

No ceiling.

He almost crumpled then, suddenly struck by an extreme sense of vertigo, feeling smaller than he ever had in his life.

The sound of an engine starting up distracted him - they were suddenly bathed in bright light. Headlights. A vehicle.

He stared toward the lights, and didn't realize until he heard the door open that someone had been inside the idling truck. They'd decided to run on foot. Probably that medic that had gotten Kadaj.

That was useful, though. They'd been taught to drive.

It took a little to get Yazoo and Kadaj into the truck bed, and it looked uncomfortable, but there wasn't much else he could do. He slammed the tailgate shut, hanging on to the side of the truck as he made his way into the cab. He'd be fine, driving, right? It wouldn't hurt as much if he could sit. That was practically resting.

"Sir?" Solan called, torn between watching his commander and watching the truck that was now driving away from the building.

Corvis slowly raised himself up, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth, pleased to note that he had two functional arms. He glared up at the Meteor bearing down on the Planet. "Let the bastards go," he sighed bitterly, shoulders slumping. "None of it's going to matter before long, anyway."

* * *

For some reason, the floor seemed to be bouncing.

After one particularly hard knock, Yazoo scowled, blinking a few times as he lifted his head. It took a few moments to make sense of his current environment.

There were... trees. Lots of them. All around. And rocks, but they looked like they might be... real. And above the trees, there was... no ceiling. Just a strange, reddish-purple sky that seemed to be getting brighter by the moment.

A slow smile spread across his face. He sat up, wincing as the truck hit another bump.

That was odd. Kadaj seemed to be asleep, too. He reached out and shook his younger brother's shoulder, leaning close. "Kadaj?"

"Nnh."

"Kadaj, wake up." Yazoo found that he couldn't keep from smiling, and wondered at that. But the air smelled... clear, in a way he'd never known before. And cooler than he was used to, and more humid. And... so _open_...

"Unh. What?" Kadaj muttered, blinking and reluctantly raising his head.

And then his eyes went wide, and he sat up a bit too quickly, and had to close his eyes again for a moment. But he was grinning the entire while. "We did it," he breathed, glancing all around them, then back at Yazoo. "We did it!"

Yazoo laughed as Kadaj threw himself forward, embracing his brother.

The truck slowed, pulling into a small clearing where a stream pooled at the base of a small waterfall. Kadaj jumped out nearly before it stopped, racing around to the drivers' side door. "Loz! We did it!" He shouted, grabbing at the door and yanking it open as Yazoo slid over the side of the truck.

And then Yazoo watched as Kadaj stared into the cab of the truck, his smile fading. "Loz...?"

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Current Music: _Just Like You Imagined _by Nine Inch Nails

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


	9. Here With Me

**Author's Note:** Disclaimer found below.

This is the last actual chapter, but there's a side-story bonus chapter I hope to complete soon (which only marginally features the boys).

Thank you for the reviews, everyone!

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* * *

Here With Me

* * *

"Got him?"

"Got him. You push, I'll pull."

"Say when."

"Now."

Kadaj pushed against Loz's shoulder as forcefully, but gently as he could. With his brother's arm over his shoulders, Yazoo pulled, gradually dragging Loz's weight onto himself.

Kadaj's knee slipped on the vinyl seat in the truck cab - it was slick with blood. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, braced his other foot, and kept pushing.

Yazoo stumbled as Loz finally slipped out of the seat, and managed to carry him a few feet away to the grass. Real grass that had grown by itself, uncultivated and patchy and uneven.

And it held no fascination for any of them.

"His back," Kadaj exclaimed, crawling out of the cab with the medical kit from the glove compartment in hand. "Yazoo, one of those goes all the way through..."

"That... explains... all the... blood, then," Yazoo grunted, kneeling as slowly as he could and letting Loz down onto the grass. He turned Loz onto his back as Kadaj approached. "Which is it?" He asked, trying to determine what were wounds and what were simply pooled blood on Loz's body. He held his hand out for the medical kit and snapped it open without looking at it.

Kadaj reached as though to touch Loz, but pulled his hand back, hesitant. "This one, I think."

Yazoo nodded, finally looking down as he sifted through the kit. He withdrew a small, squat bottle, which he handed to Kadaj. "Pour that on it..."

Kadaj broke the seal and did so, the bitter smell of Potion joining the reek of blood. The liquid glowed and fizzed a little where it contacted his brother, and the blood stopped welling up quite so quickly, but the wound didn't close.

An odd choking sound across from him caught his attention, and he looked up at Yazoo. His brother's head was bowed as he sifted through the medical kit, his movements increasing in pace until he finally flung the tin box away, spilling its contents, never raising his head. "Nothing useful," he muttered, in a strained tone of voice unlike anything Kadaj had ever heard from him before.

Neither spoke for a moment. "There's nothing else we can do, is there?" Kadaj finally murmured.

They were out, and the world was wide and empty and cold and _wrong_, and it suddenly struck him that finding Mother was going to be _difficult_.

They sat still for a little while. Yazoo kept his head down, his face hidden by his hair, his hands clenched tightly in the grass at his sides, silent but for his unsteady breath. Kadaj found that he didn't want to look at Yazoo, and tried to find something else to look at instead.

After a moment, he found that he couldn't look at Loz, either. There was too much contrast - the blood was too red and his skin was too pale, and he was far more still than he ever should be, and it was just... wrong.

He looked away, at the trees around them. There was so much space between them, and it didn't seem to end... And looking up was no good, either; beyond the sheltering tree branches, there was nothing but weirdly striated pink and blue, with a dull red glow off to one edge. It took him a little to realize that the pink streaks were clouds. The fading glow was the Meteor as this part of the Planet turned away from it for the day.

There was something else, too - a darker haze that was at an odd angle compared to the sweeping clouds. He focused on it, confused.

And then his eyes widened. "Yazoo!" He rose up to his knees, reaching across Loz to push at Yazoo's shoulder. "Yazoo, there's smoke!"

Yazoo gave a start, then raised his head and looked in the direction that Kadaj was pointing. His eyes were reddened and his face was wet; Kadaj tried not to notice.

There was no time to waste. Yazoo stood so swiftly that Kadaj startled, yanking his hand back. His older brother wasn't even looking - he was unbinding his left arm, flexing his fingers. The poison was gone, the bleeding stopped - but even if it started again, he'd need the mobility.

Kadaj watched his brother cast about the clearing for a moment, then walk quickly to one of the taller trees, ascending in a series of jumps. "What is it?" Kadaj called, settling back to sit next to Loz again.

Yazoo gripped the upper limbs of the tree tightly, unable to speak for a few moments. It wasn't the way the tree swayed in the breeze, nor his height from the ground - it was the way that the sky that arched over the forest didn't _end_. He closed his eyes, swallowed, and opened them again, becoming still as steel as the wind took his tears.

"A village." He fell silent as a gust of wind swayed the treetops, and he hung on and swayed with them. "Two hills over." He glanced at the brightening sky, then at the sun that warmed his back. "West."

Kadaj watched, wondering at the way that Yazoo turned to gold once he'd risen above the shadows of the valley. He'd no more than deciphered the effect of what must be the rising sun than his brother was descending again.

"I'll go," Yazoo said, drawing the remaining gunblade - Loz must've holstered it for him - and checking it. Two shots left, and nothing to reload with. He scowled and snapped it shut again.

The thought of effectively being alone made Kadaj shiver, but there was nothing else to be done, so far as he could tell. It was logical; Yazoo was more adept at dealing with humans. "Quickly," he muttered, unable to look at his brother.

Yazoo paused, then approached and bent, lifting Kadaj's chin with one hand - the other on his shoulder - and touched their foreheads together. "Keep him safe," he murmured.

* * *

They'd woken up. That was what was important. His brothers were free, and they were all right, and they were as safe as he could make them. It was okay to rest now, right?

It had better be. He couldn't keep his head up any more. Too tired. He wasn't even sure how far they'd come, or if he'd remembered to change direction at all. He couldn't even remember half of the driving - it had been dark, and there had been nothing to the world but the small bright patch in front of the truck, and the vague impression of _vastness_ outside the cab that he couldn't think about.

Loz remembered smelling smoke - that would mean human habitation - and turning into the woods. The woods were better. The trees helped to hide how big the world was.

Mother was out here somewhere, and she needed them. They had to find her.

Only no matter how much he wanted to... to get up, to just open his eyes, anything... he couldn't. He wasn't really asleep, but he wasn't awake, either - and there was nothing he could do about it.

So he waited, still and resting, surrounded by comfortable darkness.

Eventually, it started to worry him, that there was so much nothing. It wouldn't be so bad if his brothers were there with him, but they weren't.

He began to hate it.

It wasn't right. He had to get up. He had to move. He had to know if his brothers were still all right.

He tried as hard as he could, willing himself to wake.

Nothing.

For a little while, he screamed in frustration, trying blindly to reach out, calling for his brothers with every bit of strength he had.

He was rewarded with a strange feeling - a soft tension that seemed... green, somehow, like the dreams they had together. But it faded away almost as quickly as he sensed it.

There was nothing but darkness to know that Loz cried.

* * *

Kadaj fidgeted, one arm around his knees as he sat next to Loz. With his other hand, he pulled grass from the ground, one blade at a time.

His back began to feel warm, and finally, he turned and looked behind him. Through the trees, there was a light so bright that he couldn't look at it directly for very long. When he turned away again, he had to blink; the world was dimmed but for a residual bright disc - an afterimage.

So that was the sun. Big deal.

He pulled at the grass some more, then tore up several handfulls, then stood quickly and paced back and forth for a bit. "You're a mess, Loz," he sighed, walking over to take some of the half-unrolled gauze from the spilled medical kit. "You should mind yourself better."

He took the bandages over to the stream and dunked them, wringing them out on the way back. "I can't always be around to clean you up, you know." Scowling, he knelt next to his brother again, and quietly set to cleaning the blood away.

Loz made no response, barely breathing.

* * *

The village was small but tidy, the packed-earth streets well-kept. There was even an inn - the largest building in the town. The smoke they'd seen had come from its tall chimney.

Yazoo lurked at the edge of the village, peering around a tree. For as early in the day as it was, there were a lot of people out and about already.

Skirting the area, he finally saw why - vehicles from the labs dotted the central square. So this was where they'd fled.

His hand tightened on the gunblade. So the people would be on alert; that wasn't such a problem. There'd be a better chance of finding Potions or something he could cast Cure with this way.

* * *

Curled in on himself and whimpering, Loz tried to remember what it had been like when he'd been alone before. Long ago, before he'd been introduced to Yazoo.

...It hadn't been so bad then. He hadn't known what being alone _was_ before he'd met Yazoo.

He'd never felt so isolated in his life. Even when separated for punishment, it had never felt like this.

And then he caught it: a sense of... something. Stillness. Bright. He could smell flowers.

The scent was strong. He wrinkled his nose, sitting up and blinking.

He was sitting in a field of flowers that stretched as far as he could see, with nothing at all above - no sun, no sky, no ceiling.

Loz lay down again, curling on his side with his hands over his head this time. He shut his eyes tightly and could do little but tremble. This was worse than the nothing - this was _something_, and he didn't know how he'd gotten here, or how to leave, and his brothers weren't here, and he didn't like it at all. And the smell wouldn't go away.

"Poor thing."

His eyes snapped open, but otherwise, Loz did not move.

"You're kidding, right?"

The first voice had been a woman's; the second a man's. He listened intently.

"Not at all, and you know it."

The man's voice sighed. "You're going to insist on watching _all_ of them, aren't you?"

"Every single one," the woman responded. "He's gathering them all together, and they're going because they're pieces of him, but..."

"But they have their own selves too," the man finished. "I know..."

"P-please," Loz managed to whisper - but he couldn't find any further words. He couldn't think of a time when he'd been so... weak. _Afraid_.

The voices fell silent, but he lay among the bright flowers for what felt like a long time.

* * *

The sun climbed higher, and Kadaj set to pacing again. He'd tried everything he could think of - cleaning Loz, talking to him, even slapping him once, but there was no response. His breath was shallow and seemed to be becoming moreso.

Fists clenched in frustration, Kadaj fell next to his brother, and there was an unfamiliar edge to his voice. "Loz? Come on. We need you."

Nothing.

"Loz, get up."

Nothing.

"LOZ!"

He stood again, stomping in aimless circles, waving his fists as though looking for something to strike. This was wrong, and it needed to be fixed _now_, and where the hell was Yazoo?

There was a splash, and Kadaj realized that he'd wandered into the pool of water, and he didn't care. He waded in, kicking and beating at the waist-deep water, and finally screaming.

"MOTHER! I WANT HIM BACK!" His eyes were stinging, and his face felt hot, and it didn't matter. "MAKE HIM COME BACK! MOTHER! _PLEASE!_"

He staggered out and fell, pounding at the ground. "Please," he begged, his voice hoarse.

There was no answer.

* * *

When Yazoo stumbled into the clearing again, Kadaj was lying next to Loz, wide awake and hugging himself tightly. He focused on Yazoo, sitting up at once.

Kadaj opened his mouth and found that he couldn't even ask. Yazoo was limping, his lip was split and bleeding, and his gunblade was gone.

But as he approached, his gaze never strayed from Loz. He reached out, falling to his knees with a pained grunt, his hand bursting into green flame as he lay it on his brother's chest.

And then yanked it away again, mouth opening slightly, eyes wider than they should be for as neutral as he usually kept his face.

Kneeling opposite Yazoo, Kadaj's hopeful expression fell away. It felt like everything was falling, somehow; he sat back a little, realizing distantly that he was shaking.

Yazoo was breathing quickly, unzipping and reaching into his coat. He pulled out a small metal case, battered and still so slick with blood that it nearly slipped from his hands. He fumbled with it for a moment - he was shaking worse than Kadaj was.

Kadaj reached out and snatched the case from him, recognizing it - a SOLDIER-issue Phoenix Down case. He was able to pry it open, one lonely, broken feather drifting out to land on Loz.

Both held their breath.

Kadaj cried out in triumph when it started - golden licks of fire spread from the feather and slowly covered Loz's body. A Phoenix Down was only good so long as some warmth remained in a corpse; it needed those embers of life to fan back into flame.

Yazoo reached across Loz and lay a hand on his younger brother's shoulder, and they waited. It took long enough that Yazoo remembered to heal himself, and he cast a Cure on Kadaj as well.

Loz's breathing evened, then deepened. The wounds burned shut.

When Loz opened his eyes, Yazoo and Kadaj were both hovering over him, smiling.

And he smiled back, because the world hadn't changed at all.

* * *

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Current Music: _Here With Me _by Dido

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**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII, its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C., and no ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes.


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